Motherhood
by manyissues101
Summary: -about the trio's mothers- Lilly has been waiting for her son to return for a year now, and she wonders if he ever will.


Lilly has been waiting for her son to return for a year now, and she wonders if he ever will

Lilly has been waiting for her son to return for a year now, and she wonders if he ever will. The storm took him (not killed him, as she vehemently verses every time someone touches the subject), and every time the wind blows a part of her hopes that it will bring him back.

She sits with Kaito, who also lost her son but is able to move on by pretending, talking about early summer days and their boys' antics. They swap stories, some of which had been retold for years, and others that were being heard for the first time. But soon Lilly starts to cry, and soon Kaito follows suit, until they weep for their lost children and the antics that they will never share in again.

Lilly wonders what kind of mother she is. Kaito doesn't have any pictures up anymore, and Mie doesn't go into her daughter's old room. Their son and daughter have been all but forgotten, and neither publicly talks about what used to be. They might have erased Riku and Kairi from the island, but Lilly would never stand to let Sora go.

Mie blames them for Kairi's disappearance, because her little girl would have never gone anywhere without those wretched boys. Two wretched boys that Mie used to adore, but she needs someone to blame. Lilly knows that the mourning mother never goes near anything of Kairi's, and she suspects that Mie hasn't kissed her husband since then. The mayor is awfully cranky of late, probably brooding now that it has been an official year.

Kaito talks about her son only to Lilly. Lilly is the only one who doesn't give her that look, or use that tone of voice. She understands that Kaito is a person, not just a mother who couldn't keep her child safe. So they sit at a shabby kitchen table and talk.

0--0

When Kairi comes back, the island rejoices.

Lilly and Kaito sob.

Their children aren't with their beloved friend, nor can she tell them where they were. Kairi refuses to discuss anything about the disappearance or the storm, and only mentions the boys in a passing, "I know they're safe."

But Kaito can't take it, because she can't pretend that Riku is gone for good now that Kairi is back. The only way that she was able to move on was to let herself believe that he was gone for good, not to harbor hopes and make it harder to deal with. She doesn't know how else to handle it, because she will never let herself succumb to her hope. She no longer speaks to Lilly at the shabby kitchen table.

Lilly is more heartbroken than ever now, and she spends her days making his favorite food and spends her nights in his bed. Being a single mother makes it even harder. Mie spends all of her time with her daughter, and people have picked back up the 'I'm so sorry' look.

At work the students stare. Lilly wonders if she is that bad a teacher, or if even the children know that she is a horrible mother. She resigns the next day, unable to get out of bed. That's when she begins to pack up the pictures and closes Sora's bedroom door.

0--0

Lilly wonders why there is a bedroom at the end of the hallway. It's decorated for a boy, a teenager, but she's never had children. There are empty frames on the tables, and something seems off. She can't imagine why the house is ready for a boy, and she can't shake the hope that one would come gallivanting through the front door.

Sometimes, after fixing breakfast, the shadow of a name lingers on her lips. She wants to yell it up the stairs, even though no one is up the stairs, and she knows no one by the name of 'Sora'. But every time she thinks the name a flash of spiky hair passes through her mind.

Her best friend, Kaito, still grieves for her own son. Lilly joins her in the mourning, for Riku had been a fine boy. Mie gives her condolences too—Riku and Kairi played together, but luckily Kairi hadn't been out in the storm that day. Lilly asks them the strangest question one day, and neither know what to say except, no, she never had a son.

0--0

Kairi asks Lilly about the name Sora. Lilly starts to cry.

The young girl gives her a hug, and apologizes, but she won't let the question go. Lilly shakes her head, because she doesn't know whom Kairi is talking about, but she thinks that on some level she does. She shows Kairi the room for the boy she's never had, and Kairi sits on the floor the rest of the day, writing a letter.

Years have passed since the storm. The children miss Riku, Kaito misses Riku, Mie misses Riku, but Lilly misses Sora. The problem is that she has no idea who Sora is.

She wonders why some of her picture seem to be of nothing, or are missing a person. She wonders if maybe she is living some sort of delusion, if maybe none of this is real. Lilly wonders if maybe she has dreamed up Sora, or maybe this is one big trick.

0--0

They are in the middle of a town meeting when Lilly remembers. His name flies to her lips, and her hands follow. Every head whips around. Soon everyone is perplexed, because suddenly a certain missing teen has popped into his or her head. Kairi begins to cry, Kaito puts a hand on Lilly's back, and Mie gives them a glare of disbelief.

Lilly runs home and plops in the middle of Sora's floor, and wonders why there are faces back in her photographs.

0--0

Mie is trying to figure it out, Kaito is having a euphoric fit, and Lilly is just standing there.

Three teens are coming over the hill, at ease with each other in a way only known to those who have gone through such hardship. None know exactly when Kairi had left, but that isn't the pressing matter. The biggest things on their minds are walking into town.

Mie tries to think of how Kairi slipped away from her, or where she'd gone. All she can gather is that somehow her daughter has found them, and holds a hand each, dragging them down the hill.

Kaito's legs give out, and she cries, because her son is all that she's ever had. She can't believe how big he is, or how that could actually be _him_ when the last memory she has of him is burned on her eyelids and so different.

Lilly just watches, because she knows him, and she loves him. Sora, her son, isn't a fading memory anymore, but instead a young man walking up the way, because they all know that their mothers will be there.

There are hugs, and tears, and kisses, and disbelief, and stories, and more antics, and sorrow, and joy.

0--0

Lilly has had her son back for a year now, and she wonders when he'll leave again. Destiny took him (but a little warning would have been nice) and it's yet to be finished with him. Every time she sees a star she thinks of him and his antic-filled stories, and now three mothers talk freely of their children.

0FIN0

I've wanted to write a piece about the mothers forever. I like where this went, though I won't call it one of my better pieces.

I don't own the islander trio, but I suppose I own their parents. Though that, in turn, would mean that I own them, would it not?

I had a bit of trouble with the tenses here (aka: I spent half an hour re-reading and changing and correcting and rewriting while trying to eat ramen) so if you see anything then point it out.


End file.
